Review on the Historical Background

receive the response. The examples are post mail, facsimile, a courier, and personal columns in a newspaper.

B. Review on the Historical Background

The writer limits the discussion of India’s colonialism only when the British ruled upon India; from when the British for the first time came into the land until the India gained her independence. The writer also explains the condition of the politics, economy, and the welfare of the society at that time to give the writer and the readers an image of the situation. 1. British Colonialism in India For many centuries before the arrival of the British, India had been invaded by several invaders. The first one is Hindu society, which divided its social structure into horizontally caste system. The second one is the Muslims, which brought a wave of change in India’s political and social life. The Muslim invaders are such as Muslim Arab, Afghanistan and Turkestan. Their empire collapsed after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 Wallbank, vii. The last and maybe the strongest of all is the British who first came to the land in the eighteenth century. The first battle was settled in 1757 at Plassey. The first goal of their arrival was as traders. After the defeat of the Portuguese at Surat in 1615, the Dutch was in charge of the trading in East Indies. “The English followed, but in Dutch eyes a common faith did not mean sharing profits. The English were ejected from East Indies, …” The English then moved to the north and made cooperation with the Moghuls as naval auxiliaries to keep away the Portuguese at PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI sea. Spear, 114 Here, the English started their politic career in this sub continent. According to Spear, the English made three important functions in their role: “the creation of political unity; the introduction of western ideas; and the first tentative beginnings of representative government.” The Hindus and the Muslims responded the western in two different ways. The Hindus seemed to accept them as a new opportunity of life, but on the other hand, the Muslims opposed them by acting apathetic. For years, India had shown two different ways of life; Hindus and Muslims, which made them in two large groups of different language, religion, occupation, and historical origin that history usually called them as communal. One of the real examples of the clashes was the establishing of the Indian National Congress, which most of the position was taken by the non- Muslims while the minor called themselves the National Muslims. The Indian scene from 1857 to 1914 was characterized by the expansion of modern communications and transportation, the growth and widening use of English as a lingua franca, the establishment of western education, and the rise of a professional and business middle class. These trends helped to stir a spirit of nationalism which was signalized by the founding of the National Congress in 1885. viii The National Congress itself also majority consisted of Hindus, who was obviously anti-Muslims and anti-British. Because of the alienation by the Hindus, the Muslims rose up, began to adopt western education and found the Moslem League in 1906. The sense of nationality was so strong that it was misled to terrorism in the 1890’s, making the English responded to let Indians took a small part in the provincial and central legislatures by ratifying the Morely-Minto reforms. The significant event was the guaranteed seats for Muslims in the parliament. Their representatives were voted only by the Muslim communal roll. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI A nationalist such as Mohandas K. Gandhi insisted to have a change on the political system. The Lucknow Pact 1916 made the Hindus and Muslims cooperated together demanding a greater measure of self-government. Unfortunately, the cooperation was not lasting any longer and even it reached its climate from 1930 to 1934 in a series of Round Table Conferences held in London to draft India’s new constitution. India act of 1937 granted the Hindus six provinces and four for the Muslims. The clashes was still continued since the Congress did not allowed the Muslims to send their representatives in the cabinets and the League accused the Hindus that they misused the power and discriminate the Muslims in education and public services. From year to year the sound of partition of India became stronger, especially yelled among the Muslims. The evident came from the Indian Muslim students of Cambridge University, who firstly declared Pakistan as the name of their nation in 1933. In 1940, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslims, pronounced that the Muslims “were not a minority, but a distinct nation.’ Wallbank, ix The Second World War could change everything included the political situation in India. The British’s refusal of the immediate Indian self- government made the Congress ministries in the provinces resigned in 1939. British had to face the fact that Japan had almost defeated them in 1942. Sir Stafford Cripps was sent by the British War Cabinet to collect reinforcements from all parties as many as he could. The British asked the hands of the Indians to help them in the war, and as the compensation, the British promised the Congress their independence and the Muslims had their own nation. Both parties refused the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI proposal for their own reasons. Mahatma Gandhi as the leader of the Congress strived for Britain “Quit India” and led the actions of disobedience movement. For the consequence, the British arrested Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and most of other Congress leaders. 1944 was the year that once again the two leaders of the communal had different perceptions. Gandhi said that plebiscites should be held to determine what separate self-governing states should be established. Further, it was important to gain independence first before both groups decided the fate of their nation. While Jinnah as the opposite argued that his side would not take any kind of cooperation to make a central government with the Congress. In order to prepare the independence, the British Government made surveys to observe the India’s political situation. In 1918 in the form of the British Secretary of State for India, they assessed the controversial communal voters, and they suggested staying. The second survey was in 1930, which the result was “that Britain’s only purpose was to act as a buffer and remain neutral in this antagonism.”Wallbank, x According to the survey, a basic trouble was not at the communal but the struggle for political power. Nehru claimed that the Muslims was actually forced to be Indianized. That was the reason why it was no change for the Muslims to integrate with the Hindus. For the Hindus, a provocative idea that only them who could govern India alone and aspirated the sounds of real India made them anti democratic and authoritarian and refused to made a coalition with the League in the 1937 election. India’s independence process obtained some progress when the British, represented by Mr. Attlee’s Labour Government, announced to form the Cabinet PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Mission, supporting the Indian leaders to prepare her independence. Started on March 24, 1946, the Cabinet Mission worked with its labors for three months. The Congress claimed three statements, vetoed by Jinnah, in a conference held by the Cabinet Mission on May 1946, which were a new constitution for a strong central government, the end of British era, and a fully Constituent Assembly. The Cabinet Mission had its own plan dealt with a notion of Pakistan, the forming of a new government, and an exercised power by a central government in a Union of India. An interim government was established to carry on this long term plan, and for the short one, there was the British Viceroy under the guidance of an all-Indian- members Executive Council. It seemed that both Congress and League agreed with this plan on June, but unfortunately the League canceled it on July, even this cancelation raised a terrible chaos named Calcutta riots on August 16, 1946. In September 1946, Nehru became the head of the interim government. There had been controversies on the members of Executive Council, and adjusted by the joint of the League representatives as the council members. The politic situation was getting urgent; therefore, in February 1947 the Prime Minister Attlee proclaimed the transfer of power was not more than June 1948. The plan for the Partition agreed by the Congress and the League was declared by the Viceroy on June 3 since the British wanted to leave from India immediately. The Indian Independence Bill was firstly discussed in the Parliament on July 4, 1947, and directly agreed. Two new dominions finally gained their independence on August 15, 1947. 2. Organization of the Politics, Economy, and Welfare PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI In order to help the writer in making her analysis, she describes Indian situation during British colonialism by illustrating the organization of the politics, economy, and welfare of Indian society at that time. a. Organization of the Political Power. In order to maintain their power in India’s land, British took some actions in their governing time. British had some objects of their political power which were to restore, to conserve, and to continue the system that had already exist in India, rather than to destroy, to innovate, or to revolutionize. Their first object was the elementary of restoring order and collecting revenue. The British government set Delhi city into some districts for the reason of robbing and stray shooting. British ruled Bengal and the south with practicing their own experience and continuing the Moghuls tradition. British ruled as a governor depended on the Moghuls emperors. Direct rule they achieved was a grant from the temporary Emperor. Their first direct rule experience was ruined by the Archot’s debts corruption done by the Nawabs. The corruption was also done by one of the British officers which caused a terrible famine for the entire country in 1770. It ended when Warren Hastings than Cornwallis was in charge, but unfortunately none of them could blend with the citizen to know their condition and tradition. In that time, most of Indian people had lack of knowledge, making them were left behind the western. The past corruption and the dullness of the Indian were the reasons why British was eager to take over the control, though they realized that it was impossible to remove the local tradition from its land. From 1803, Delhi was led by “the fount of lawful authority” Spear, 126 British pensioner. Instead of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI taking over the throne directly, British expanded her power slowly but sure, from one region to another. Her power was completed by a proclamation from Queen Victoria as the Empress of India in 1876. Evidence in tradition influence was the Moghuls influence of the officials’ magnificence. The officers were well-paid noble whom lived in luxuries. The Moghuls influence was also obviously seen in the local and district administration. Unlike in a higher level, in which the Secretariat was British but the officialdom hierarchy was Moghuls, in local and district, especially when dealt with revenue and local farmer, the Indian got more power in British’s administration area. One of the successes that English brought to India was that English could make the land more safety after repelling the robber bands out of the country. The police were made to run the order that came from the military. In spite of serving the civilian, the police were a nightmare who did corruptions and any other barbarian attitude. The British made some efforts to run up the law: sorting out a chaos of competing civil jurisdictions; revising and administrating a criminal law; and making provision for commercial law in trade and industry. The British made a discretion dealing with the traditional law, which was using both the existing law that was suitable for the Hindus and the Muslims and the improvement of English law. A well-known systematic codification of criminal law was the Indian Penal Code, introduced by Macaulay as Law Member in 1834 and completed in 1860. Up to 1882, this code was developed in a series of Law Commissions and produced a structure of public civil law. Reorganization of Hindu and Muslim systems was used to solve the personal law problem. It was supported by Spear’s PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI statement “The highest legal tribunal was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, which had Hindu and Muslim members for dealing with Indian cases 130.” There was a judicial hierarchy in India: “… magistrates courts of first instance to High Courts at the provincial Capitals, The Federal Court at New Delhi, and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London Spear, 131”. The interesting features of this system that should be noted were first the members of the judicial posts were taken half from the civil service chosen for a judicial career, and half from the legal profession. Second was the mixture of British and French system in judiciary. The last, the Collector or Deputy Commissioner ran the executive and judicial functions in the same time in the most part of India. It meant that when the collector collected the revenue, at the same time he also had the judicial power. It has been lasting up to the present. The English judicial system seemed to be perfect, but in fact, it was almost inapplicable and so complicated for general public to understand and gain a justice. To look at the real life of Indian in protecting life and limb, and administrating justice, we should see an Indian village as an example. According to Charles Metcalfe, as Spear quoted in his book, the village had its own apparatus and equipment to run the political, economy, social, and judicial unit. Citizen did their own part in the village, such as the village priest, record-keeper, the bania or shopkeeper and moneylender, the carpenter, and the blacksmith. It was said that villages were places where all revenues came from. In the early age of their time, the British found difficulties in collecting revenue, but by the time went by they PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI learn from their mistakes and gain their triumph by changing the subsistence farming into the commercial ones. Beside the triumph, British also made a failure in reviving the age-old village community caused by the failure of the traditional system in keeping balance with the modern system. To defense their area, British built their troops consisted of British and Indian men, whom the percentage of the former was diminished and Indian troops became the major. The sense of the Empire period was still strong, and it was seen in the existence of the Princes, who “… ruled rather more than two-fifths of the area and rather less than a quarter of the inhabitants of India Spear, 137”. Because of this independent power, the British found difficulties to put the Princes into their government system. b. The Organization of Economic Life Spear stated that English did not make any changes in India’s economic system. It was said that India herself who grew her trade and industry with the role of the British to free men to promote their own welfare. This India’s economy-self-organized gave influences to their internal life and their attitude toward the British. The arrival of the British brought a first sign of the Indian’s economic changes from the traditional structure to the modern one. Every economy movement done by the British was based on the Moghuls economy organization which “… a variation of the traditional pattern of Indian economic life…. a subsistence economy…Spear, 141”. Subsistence economy was identical with difficulties of large scale production and cheap heavy transport. Trading could not run good enough because of the transportation problem, long distance area, and hard-crossed landscape. Among others, only Ganges and Jumna PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI had easier conditions. Another difficulty of trading was the political insecurity, making the merchants were afraid of threat and loss. The Moghuls based its economy on the peasants who earned their own needs by themselves. Every man ran his part or duty in the village communities and the government had a role as a revenue collector. Because of those difficulties mentioned above, the trade and industry were not the first attention in India. There were two kinds of industry: local and national industry. Local industry met the daily needs and produced coarse cotton cloth, earthenware pots, brass vessels, trinkets, and jewellery. The national one did the production such as sugar, indigo, tobacco, oil seeds, and saltpeter in a large scale and in particular areas. The products for the upper class were silk, calico, muslin industries, gold, silver, ivory, metal, and woodwork. India, up to now, have been famous of her textile, exported to European, Middle East, and also Indonesia. Other products were indigo, spices, rice and sugar, dyed yarn, and saltpeter. India also imported horses for military purposes; raw material such as silk, ivory, coral and amber; metal such as tin, zinc, and silver; luxuries and novelties such as precious stones, spices, African slaves, Persian wines and carpets, Chinese goods, and European wines and novelties. In Moghuls time, the government received almost of the wealth of India. The habit of the officials that exposed their lavish lifestyle made India was rich in the eyes of travelers, but she was poor in the matter of fact; many undeveloped resources and famines in a whole country because of the transport difficulties. In the eighteenth century, the transfer of power from the Moghuls to the Western PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI messed the Indian economy. The East India Company then took control of India with some ideas as their subjects. First, the official had to revive the trade, especially in increasing demands, in poor side of the country. Second, the controllers used the western economic theories, such as from Adam Smith, to control the economy and practiced them in actual administration. Third, India seemed to be a next potential market for some traders and rising manufacturers. The difference of interests and viewpoints of the officials, the Utilitarian, and the traders and the manufacturers often made clashes in Indian economic life. first was the local administrators who instead of gave benefits to the Company, they made the Government lost almost half of the share. Second example was a difference of viewpoint between the district officials who based on the Utilitarian or western economic ideas and the local economy who still used the traditional ways. Third, the investors sooner realized that it was hard to run their businesses in India, not only by the Company’s monopoly, but also the nature of the land itself. In business, the government acted as the facilitator and promoter for traders and investors to grow their industries in India. It helped the investors to solve the four main problems they usually faced: the land, commerce, communications, and finance. Lack of transport was still the main problem, and it was the duty if the Government to make a new modern system of transportation. A new road had been build since 1818 to 1927 for 59,000 miles of first-class road. Railways were the most effective transport system that could support the Indian modern economy. By using railways, India could deliver even heavy goods in rural areas PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI that formerly it was impossible to do it by cart. It also made the food circulation easier so that it could solve famine problem from 1876-1878. Trade, which was now specifically in interior, could grow as well as the industry, which developed for two reasons; both coal was supplied for power and the goods entered the market easier. India could reach world trade by the opening of the Suez Canal, 1869. The government also helped the investors in financial problem by holding the Imperial Bank of India in 1921 and a state institution, Reserve Bank of India. India could not stand alone in making economy decision and still depended on British unless she could overcome the tariffs problem and free competition. India now has a managing agency, which control any work in any place for any one. There are three kinds of industries that are well-developed: the plantation industries such as tea, coffee, rubber and tobacco; the large crop industries such as cotton and jute; and the heavy industries such as coal, iron, and steel. c. The Organization of Welfare The East India Company more or less had given influences toward Indian people with introducing their two new kinds of thoughts, which were the Utilitarian and the Evangelical. The Utilitarian, as Spear described, was “… the English expression of eighteenth-century rationalism; their watchwords were reason, utility, and the amiability of man, and they believed that no improvement was impossible if these principles were given free play. 158” This thought was always confronted with custom, vested interests, and privilege, which they could easily be found in Hindu system. Its basic moral standards were the conventional PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Christian ethics; therefore, the Utilitarian saw Indian people were in superstition, apathy, and vice. On the other hand, the Evangelicalism was a thought against rationalism and formalism in religion. The real actions of this thought were a struggle against slave trade and a lead in social legislation. Spear stated, “Their current epithet for Hinduism was ‘the abomination of heathenism and for the Muslims ‘infidel’ and ‘profligate’. 159” Utilitarian and Evangelical movements had grown in India along with the Western Government. These thoughts had influenced Indian’s customs, values, ways of thought, and even culture. The real influence we could see was in leading personalities. The book “History of British India” written by James Mill, published in 1817, became familiar to every student of affairs. Direct results of the Utilitarian influence were the abolition of sati in 1828, the abolition of transit duties in 1835, and the education policy. The Evangelical considered Roman priest and Muslim maulvi as representatives of Antichrist and took action in launching Christian missions as a large-scale enterprise. In education, an English man named Warren Hastings founded Sanskrit and Arabic colleges, promoted the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, read Persian literature and translated poems. The content of learning was to be European science and English literature and the medium of instruction to be English. English, instead of the Persian, was also used in Government business and the higher courts of law. The aims of educating English toward the Indians were first to introduce them to a modern thought instead of Hindu superstition, and the English-educated men could be interpreters of Western civilization to the Indian masses. This movement produced a new PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI educated class which received not only cultural and revolutionary conception, but also a political and utilitarian that has determined the course of Indian education. The Government faced difficulty in linguistic problem for English officials had a little will of learning local languages. The 1835 linguistic revolution was secured by the “Utilitarian and Evangelical conviction of the superior qualities of Western and Christian civilization and Utilitarian conviction of the general ‘usefulness of the English tongue’… Spear, 164” The Indian accepted this new policy with a good reaction. They supported it with two kinds of interest. First, the practical view which the background was mastering English to get the knowledge, leading them to good prospects of success. The other was the intellectual view with its background mastering English to get a new knowledge from the West. Both were united in the first modern college in 1816, Hindu College of Calcutta. The spirit to learn English had increased among the students. For example, a Hindu student made a poet in English, and Muslim in Delhi translated Western works. Government arranged an education hierarchy that led the students to colleges or universities, as same as the London model. It also defined a B.A standard to whom wanted to be a government employees. The new educational system indeed was well-absorbed, but poorly, the knowledge was received without a deeper understanding, meaning that Indian people just merely imitated what they had learnt. One of the important agents to develop the country was the educational missionaries. From year to year, colleges, especially Christian colleges, had spread out to the entire land. The missionary gave its influence by promoting PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI moral and spiritual progress in the educational system. Another agent was the government, which by its favor, Indian education made a progress. From 1902 to 1919, education was undertaken by Western, but in 1921 Indian had completely taken all the control. Since then, many progresses had been made, for example the increasing numbers of universities from five to thirteen, distinctions were increasingly made between pass and honors courses, research was undertaken, technical courses of all kinds were developed, and research institutions were set up. India now has succeeded to contribute her experts to the world. In the matter of organizing welfare, previously Hinduism bound a man with a law based on where he came from; caste or outcaste. Muslims differentiated a law for a man from Muslim or infidel, whether in procedure or status. Under the British, all were equal. This changes affected Hindu principles that now there was a regulation for the religion-changing people to preserve their property, and a remarriage for a Hindu widows. More important was the enforcement of the rule of law impartially by the courts, and the acknowledgement of individual’s rights as an individual. In material welfare, British could do little thing to change the poor condition of India. It was seen from numbers of famines throughout the country. British could not solve the transport problem which made people extremely depended on the crops of their land. The serious effects of famines were the selling of peasants into slavery and considerable declination of population. The government tried to solve this problem by founding the Famine Commission in 1880. This committee was functioned to make sure the supplying of food was delivered to the famine PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI area. The food delivery was helped by the development of railways, as we have discussed it before. Beside food, water was also an important thing to solve famines. British tried to restore the use of abandoned tanks, reservoirs, and canals to keep water from drought. The canals finally could be re-operated and they made a fine progress from time to time. Dealing with health service, formerly Hindus and Muslims had their own ways of healing. Hindus’ medical system was based on Sanskrit texts, while Muslims was based on Greek. Their healing system were still in traditional way such as a knowledge of medical herbs and an extensive physical lore, and they did not know anything about modern medical system such as surgery and antiseptic medicine. There were a little numbers of doctors in towns that their standards were still in doubt. Medical science was given along with other modern knowledge and the young Hindus could learn in Calcutta Medical School. There were ten medical colleges with 1,800 students, and twenty-eight medical schools that many of its students directly gained their training in West. The government has founded many hospitals and done disease prevention by bringing smallpox, cholera, under-controlled plague, and crushing malaria. There were Public Health officers and good sanitations have been built to create well-kept towns. As it has been discussed in organization of power session, all new things that came to India had changed every aspect of the Indian’s life, including their social conditions. One of the changes was the appearance of new various classes. The landowning or rent-collecting aristocracy and the old official classes were considered as the genuine class of the society. Then among them grew a new PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI middle class, which consisted of English-educated Indian men, who were expected to be the interpreters for the West to the East, and they were a local citizen or Indians with English and science knowledge needed for new administration and new services such as railways, road engineering, and irrigation. Trade and industry also needed clerks and technicians. Another class, which was called the subordinate class, was a class that ministered to the fiat of high European officials with some certain independent leadership element. . The occupations included to this class were the lawyers, the doctors, the teachers, and the professors.

C. Theoretical Framework